European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 18, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday january 18, 1969 the stars and stripes Page 9 lbs s one mistake was a real whopper if eve a departing president had reason to with he had it to do All Over again that president is Lyrton Johnson. I do sure he tills other and himself that Given the Chance he would do it again Bat Salty the same Way and that history will vindicate him and perhaps he believes it. Yet How different the profile of american society today would be if he had not made the fateful decision to Esca late Early in 1965, it would have meant a Sharp difference for the condition of the cities the mood of the Young the de Gree of confrontation by violence and for a own political for tunes. Can there be any doubt that if he had made a different decision on the War the Man to be inaugurated As president now in 1969, would be Lyndon Johnson Max Lerner surely this was not the Choice of a Mere politician whatever indignity Lyndon Johnson has done to himself we have done him the indignity of saying All along that he was Only a  who would have dared predict six years ago when or. Johnson became presi Dent that he would turn out to be a bad politician in the sense that he would fail to get himself renominated and re elected wrong or right the decision he made on Vietnam and stuck to was not the one calculated to make things easy for him with the voters nor with the intellectuals who largely set the patterns of opinion. In that sense it took political courage and will. President Johnson has All along had unquestioning Confidence in his own political intuitions about the exercise of Power and i fear that he was betrayed by this Confidence. He saw himself As a can do presi Dent and that was his undoing. Nettled perhaps by the condescension of the Kennedy he was All the More anxious to show his capacity for perform Ance not Only on Domestic legis lation but on knotty questions of foreign policy. He was deter mined to carry off a great for eign policy Success to add to the Luster of his record As an Ameri can Hammurabi. It was alas not a great Suc Cess but a resounding failure for reasons that or. Johnson has not yet perhaps wholly understood. Obviously he counted on the massiveness of american Power and technology and expected a Victory before the end of his term. It did t come because he did t know the psychological and historical map of Southeast Asia and did t grasp the intensity of nationalist feeling which the communists in Vietnam were Able to exploit. Nor did he estimate fully the strength of the potential reaction against the War at Home. Within this double Frame Vietnam nationalism and the Antiwar move ment in America american Power became powerless. What makes this the More ironic is that Lyndon Johnson did t make this Blunder on his own. He made it on the Best of advice. He touched All the bases pushed All the buttons lined up All the experts and stif came up with the wrong decision. I Don t mean that or. Johnson Ever ignored the Public opinion polls. If anything he was too much concerned about them Fol lowing their every up and Down with a fever Chart attention. But there is a difference Between watching the shifting mood of the people and sensing How they feel far below the surface level of the attitude polls about where the nation is going and where it belongs and where it does or does t have any business to be. Harry Truman had that seme at he showed even in the big risky decisions he made like fhe Marshall plan and the korean War and the firing of Gen. Doug Las Macarthur. This is pretty much How i size him up a Man who loved work and Power and was Good at both a Man with his roots in the people who Cut himself away from those roots on Only one Issue but a fateful one a Man of great skill in Means who was puzzled about what to do on War and peace and made the mistake of asking the experts when he should have followed his own earthy sense a Man who lost credibility Only because he was so eager to keep things going on an even keel until the ship of state could get to port a Man who followed what he Felt to be More important than popularity and had to pay the High Price. 1969, lot Ang let times crime statistics Are appalling wailing room Henry j. Taylor alleged Assassin Sirhan Bis Hara Sirhan s trial has begun at last. Sen. Robert f. Kennedy was assassinated june 5, 1968 More than seven months ago. Or. Martin Luther King was assassinated april 4, 1968. Alleged Assassin James Earl Ray arrested in London june 8, 1968, is still seven months not at the bar of Justice. President John f. Kennedy was assassinated nov. 22, 1963. Alleged Assassin a Harvey Oswald was killed in front of the to cameras by alleged murderer Jack Ruby who died Jan. 3, 1967, still a convicted or sentenced More than three years later. Why Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said Justice postponed is jus Tice  president William Mckinley was assassinated sept. 6, 1901, by Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz was tried sentenced and executed by october 29, 1901 53 Days later. President Theodore Roosevelt used to place on a chair at the head of his White House bed a "44" Smith & Wesson double action revolver which you can see at his 29 East 20th Street Birthplace in new York City an eyeglass Case through which the Bullet passed saved his life when John flank Long Schrank attempted his assassination at Milwaukee in 1912. Insane Schrank was committed in five Days. President elect Franklin d. Roosevelt was shot at in Miami on feb. 15, 1933, by Joseph Zangara a woman seized Zan Gara s Arm and his Bullet killed Chicago mayor Anton j. Cermak in the car with or. Roosevelt. Zangara was tried sentenced and executed within 33 Days did you know that last year was the first year in the history of the United states that not one single criminal was executed it was also the year of the highest crime rate in history. A connection even in our nation s capital walking after dark near the Capitol is extremely Dangle news murders kidnappings assaults and rapes constantly take place. Are the rights of the trouble makers More important than the sufferers the crime rate has nearly Dou bled in the past decade. Since 1958 it has increased five times As fast As our population. More than 2.5 million serious crimes were committed last year. And More than 40 per cent of All serious crimes now involve boys and girls under 18. The president s commission on Law enforcement estimates there Are 1.1 million full time Crimi nals now operating. Armed Rob Bers took about $27 million from victims last year. Highly specialized pickpockets make about $15,000 a year. Stock defraud ers stole about $500 million shop lifters $300 million burglars $251 million embezzler $200 million. The sales of fake arthritis reme Dies alone were $250  within one single week 91 american cities burst into Vio Lence and More than 55,000 troops had to be committed to them. A recent National Survey of police departments in 425 cities showed that 41 per cent of the cities exceeding 100,000 population experienced riots and Many attendant murders even though the typical City among the 425 has now increased its full time police Force to an aver age of one policeman for each 700 residents. The statistics Are incredible but they too Are Only part of the picture. Fri director j. Edgar Hoover has told me that of 539 offenders involved in police kill Ings 77 per cent had been previously arrested and 67 per cent previously convicted. He said that two thirds of the police kill ers had been granted parole or probation and that three but of 10 were actively on parole or probation when they killed the officer. In one appealed Case he told me on the 23rd Day after a convicted Man should have been jailed he murdered a police officer. Many who scan the crime facts seem to ignore the most shocking fact of All. Although 1968 serious crimes increased 16 per cent Over 1967, arrests increased Only four per cent and convictions actually decreased eight per cent. The inescapable conclusion is that the courts Are not properly disposing of criminal offenders and the police officers Lack Confidence that the courts Are supporting police Diligence. C 1969 United feature Syndicate inc. Retaliation by israelis was too effective John p. Roche a of til when i look at the situation in the Middle East or in South East Asia i ask myself one Cruci Al question who wants War the answer to this key query seems to me the major precondition for any intelligent response either National or personal. And when we forget to ask it or lose tight of the answer our View Point becomes confused and our policies eccentric. In the Middle East it is per. Factly Clear and has been for Twenty years that Israel does not want War. On the other hand the arabs have been Call big fat the  of it Raj?-4he do Fahimi Between Arab note Deratt and a cab extremists being feat the former would kill the israelis without first torturing them. Israel in Short is a legitimate democratic nation living in a state of siege. It is unfortunately located i would much prefer it on an is land in the Atlantic but there it is. Since Israel can t be moved to a More favourable location we have the simple Choice of sup porting her against what amount to permanent aggression sponsored by the soviets or copping out. Alas i there is no intermediate position in the recent juror Over the israeli commando raid on Beirut Airport a number of comments two and , the Emma of of the United state be envy Mitt is Contact to truth the Nawf omeral israeli Arab it . Up three million is were suddenly billed As aggressors against the 100 Mil lion who have been doing their Best to eliminate the tiny notion. Suddenly 1 see the difficulty the israelis have had with Liberal opinion they were too damned effective in their reprisal. The Dif Ference Between some lonely existential arabs out blowing up an Israel plane with no concern about human life and the brilliantly mounted bloodless raid on lebanese hardware brought out the sentimental ism in the liberals. Just As the United states went to incredible lengths to hit Only military Tan jets in North Vietnam and by Hanoi s own figures pc Cettl ully Man imbued civilian pm Watt a israelis took great is Ai in feel rut to insure that no Humm beings were on the plan. If a is facing a fearful Choice. Arab infiltrators Are con stantly mining roads setting off explosions and generally operating in the Best Viet Cong tradition and with the same russian weapons. What should the israelis do a decent democratic people does not want to set up a police state to control its Arab minority and there is no doubt that the guerrillas Are agents of the Arab nations. So should the Urbelis sit quietly and wait for the United nations world opinion or rhe big Powers to guarantee their Security or should they proceed on the Assumption that in the absence of direct great Power involvement the Only Security they will have is what they provide for themselves they Hove correctly in my judgment taken the second option. To t�6�. King feature